Nine years ago today we watched in horror as a series of carefully planned attacks were carried out against innocent victims who had no idea they would be targets of such savagery. It's hard for most people to imagine how anyone can be so inhuman as to deliberately cause maximum suffering and loss of innocent life. Perversely though not surprisingly, this was yet another atrocity done in the name of God, or as Muslims call Him, Allah. Speaking of God, one of His self-appointed press secretaries down in Florida dominated the news this week, as we paid far too much attention to this inconsequential flyspeck of a man who overextended his 15 minutes of fame by threatening to make a big show of burning the Koran. This would have served no purpose whatsoever except to inject a booster shot of hatred into a few already hate-poisoned souls.
Religion has enriched humanity by inspiring charity, compassion and other virtues, but religious fundamentalism and fanaticism have led to some horrendous things. Right now Muslims may be more likely than others to commit acts of terror explicitly in the name of their faith, but we should not, by any stretch of the imagination, conclude that the Koran is a book of violence while the Bible is a book of peace. Both of these sacred texts can be horrifying if read a certain way. We see in our Bible, particularly the Old Testament, a prime example of the God as bogeyman paradigm, a ghost story designed to terrify the masses and cow them into submission. You needn't go through the Bible with a fine-tooth comb to see some very disturbing things. Let's just look at a couple of the Bible's greatest hits, the Ten Commandments and the great flood/Noah's Ark.
There are variations of the Ten Commandments but in every case the first several involve playing to the ego of a needy and insecure God who even admits He's jealous and will punish descendants of those who reject Him to the third and fourth generation (Deut. 5:9). The Bible thus paints God as not only petty but also savagely vindictive, attacking generation after generation of innocent victims if someone in their lineage wouldn't invite Him to sit at the cool kids' table. The Bible also orders us to commit acts of heinous brutality if the Ten Commandments are violated. If anyone fails to speak of God with awe and reverence he is guilty of blasphemy and we must throw rocks at him until he's dead (Lev. 24:13-16). People are also to be killed for working on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2) and the punishment for being a disobedient son? Yup, we must throw rocks at him until he's dead (Deut 21:18-21).
The tale of Noah's Ark shows our God at his most bloodthirsty. He got angry and decided he would spare eight people (one couple, their three sons and their wives) and the bare minimum number of creatures necessary for repopulation, then He would drown every other living thing. God's sociopathic overreaction makes Vlad the Impaler look like the Dalai Lama, yet we would condemn the whole of Islam as brutally savage based on a news story about one jagoff blowing up a pizzeria.
I'm not insulting God. I would be if and only if I believed the Bible to be a direct dictation from God to an infallible stenographer, which I most assuredly do not. For one thing the story of Noah's Ark doesn't pass the laugh test. Rain falling at a rate that would cover the mountains in a few weeks would sink the USS Nimitz let alone a wooden boat laden with elephants, hippos, etc. Plus, though Bible defenders try to explain this away, a great many of the animals aboard this floating food chain would not be on the passenger list so much as the menu. Somebody just made it up. If you seek spiritual enlightenment to be the best person you can be I applaud you, but don't adopt fanaticism; nothing good comes of it no matter what Moses claims the talking shrubbery told him.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Fighting the Wrong "Elites"
The American political landscape is littered with examples of one group pitted against another. One such divide is what some on the right call the "culture war." As they frame it, this is a battle between salt of the earth "real" Americans who believe in traditional values, and their opponents, referred to as "liberal elites," whose views are more progressive, and who tend to live on either coast, especially in large metropolitan areas. For about the last forty-five years, the rivalry between these two factions has had very important electoral implications, raising the significance of this debate beyond just competing schools of thought in the marketplace of ideas.
Without rehashing the entire history that got us here, Nixon's southern strategy, the Reagan coalition and so forth, suffice it to say that millions of Americans felt the country had changed too much too fast and Republicans masterfully capitalized on the disquiet that swept through the South and other rural areas, changing the political map ever since. The defection of these traditional "values voters" to the Republican party has sparked debate over whether or not they're well served by that move. Some believe these people have been hoodwinked by clever political operatives who convince them they'll benefit by backing candidates who stand on their side on wedge issues such as abortion and gay rights.
That's precisely what historian and author Thomas Frank argues in his book, What's the Matter with Kansas? His central thesis is that these people were snookered by a classic bait and switch. Lure the voters by firing them up over some hot button social issues and have them vote you into office. Once elected, do nothing about these issues. Instead, use your position to greatly enhance the wealth and power of the privileged few, often to the detriment of those you suckered into voting for you against their own interest. In other words, market yourself as the party of Hallelujah, though you're actually the party of Halliburton. Dr. Frank's book is controversial, and there has been some rebuttal, but I'm not interested in whether or not his analysis is perfect; I'm interested in examining the consequences and wisdom of the choices we make. I'm second to none in my desire to see small town America take on the "elites", but the battle should be against the right elite.
The real elite are the select few at the very top of the economic ladder who have done exceedingly well in the last 30 years while the rest of the country has not. The richest 1% of the population holds as much wealth as the bottom 95% combined, and in this country money in many ways equals power. I would love to see the middle class fight to prevent its further erosion rather than siding with the very rich and abetting their efforts to control an even bigger share of the pie. Instead, too many people continue to harm themselves and others by injudiciously backing people who don't care about them.
Nobody wants to pay taxes but everybody wants the road paved. We all want to give the least and get the most, but what separates the privileged few from everyone else is that they have the power to make their wishes reality unless people stand up to them. Right now our economy is being held hostage. We're supposedly doomed unless we placate the richest Americans because decision makers are hamstrung, not knowing if the top tax rate will return to where it was during the Clinton years. Really? Well, if you lack the business acumen to handle uncertainty in this uncertain world, your $24 million pay is overinflated by at least $23.95 million and your shareholders would like it back please.
Before making its own mistakes, the labor movement taught us that if we stand together we can create a society of broadly shared prosperity that became the envy of the world. History has also taught us that polarization of wealth is a recipe for disaster. It will be a glorious day when "real" Americans take on the real "elites."
Without rehashing the entire history that got us here, Nixon's southern strategy, the Reagan coalition and so forth, suffice it to say that millions of Americans felt the country had changed too much too fast and Republicans masterfully capitalized on the disquiet that swept through the South and other rural areas, changing the political map ever since. The defection of these traditional "values voters" to the Republican party has sparked debate over whether or not they're well served by that move. Some believe these people have been hoodwinked by clever political operatives who convince them they'll benefit by backing candidates who stand on their side on wedge issues such as abortion and gay rights.
That's precisely what historian and author Thomas Frank argues in his book, What's the Matter with Kansas? His central thesis is that these people were snookered by a classic bait and switch. Lure the voters by firing them up over some hot button social issues and have them vote you into office. Once elected, do nothing about these issues. Instead, use your position to greatly enhance the wealth and power of the privileged few, often to the detriment of those you suckered into voting for you against their own interest. In other words, market yourself as the party of Hallelujah, though you're actually the party of Halliburton. Dr. Frank's book is controversial, and there has been some rebuttal, but I'm not interested in whether or not his analysis is perfect; I'm interested in examining the consequences and wisdom of the choices we make. I'm second to none in my desire to see small town America take on the "elites", but the battle should be against the right elite.
The real elite are the select few at the very top of the economic ladder who have done exceedingly well in the last 30 years while the rest of the country has not. The richest 1% of the population holds as much wealth as the bottom 95% combined, and in this country money in many ways equals power. I would love to see the middle class fight to prevent its further erosion rather than siding with the very rich and abetting their efforts to control an even bigger share of the pie. Instead, too many people continue to harm themselves and others by injudiciously backing people who don't care about them.
Nobody wants to pay taxes but everybody wants the road paved. We all want to give the least and get the most, but what separates the privileged few from everyone else is that they have the power to make their wishes reality unless people stand up to them. Right now our economy is being held hostage. We're supposedly doomed unless we placate the richest Americans because decision makers are hamstrung, not knowing if the top tax rate will return to where it was during the Clinton years. Really? Well, if you lack the business acumen to handle uncertainty in this uncertain world, your $24 million pay is overinflated by at least $23.95 million and your shareholders would like it back please.
Before making its own mistakes, the labor movement taught us that if we stand together we can create a society of broadly shared prosperity that became the envy of the world. History has also taught us that polarization of wealth is a recipe for disaster. It will be a glorious day when "real" Americans take on the real "elites."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)